Rockefeller Republicans

The Rockefeller Republicans were members of the US Republican Party in the 1930s-1970s who supported social liberalism and fiscal conservatism. The faction was named for New York governor and Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller, and Thomas E. Dewey was another leading figure in the movement. Rockefeller Republicans were typically moderate to center-right, and they rejected conservatives such as Barry Goldwater, supported cultural liberalism, supported government investment in environmentalism, healthcare, and higher education, supported labor unions, and supported increased infrastructure spending. While Richard Nixon was a part of the cultural right during the 1968 election, he adopted several Rockefeller Republican policies during his presidency, such as creating the Environmental Protection Agency, expanding welfare programs, imposing wage and price controls, and supporting Keynesian economics. By 1988, the Rockefeller Republicans had declined, however, with the neoconservative candidate George H.W. Bush's promise of "no new taxes" marking the dominance of the Conservative Republicans faction in politics. By the 21st century, ethnic changes in the Northeast led to many Rockefeller Republicans leaving the increasingly-conservative national Republican Party and joining the liberal Democratic Party. Famous examples of Rockefeller Republicans include Charles Mathias, Jacob Javits, Christine Todd Whitman, Lloyd Blankfein, and Kim Kardashian.